January 3rd, 2009
BitLocker for dummies (...students)
Students need security; it’s a paramount element of university life. Without security, our laptops can go missing (or stolen, depending on which university you go to), and a good proportion of your life you can say goodbye to.
This came in the form of BitLocker, a hardware enabled solution which allows only you access to your entire computer. If your computer is stolen, the perpetrator will not be able to decrypt the contents, as the encryption key is just as secure, if not more secure than the SSL sequence.
However, getting the damn thing working has been a nightmare for as many Google searches of people I can find. Whilst I may not be able to give a sound solution to the problem, at least Windows 7 is making headway with a portable encryption solution. For those interested in BitLocker-to-Go, which enables easy encryption of flash and portable drives in Windows 7, skip straight to page 4.
First things first
If you have a new-ish Intel processor, great! You’ve probably got a TPM chip. If you’ve got an AMD processor, the chances are you don’t.
You’re also meant to do this before you get your files, folders, settings and applications sorted. If you haven’t, you will need to re-partition your hard drives and this is hardly user friendly.
Just to screw you over even more, BitLocker is only available on Windows Vista Ultimate and Enterprise editions, the two editions which aren’t on DreamSpark or MSDNAA. However, if you are using Windows Server 2008 like I’ve previously suggested, bingo, you can use BitLocker. It just seems to Microsoft that home users aren’t as important as the rest of us…
In case of a massive boot failure, such as “BOOTMGR is missing” which I unfortunately suffered, these can be fixed with these two handy links. Print them out so you’ve got them offline, and keep your Vista DVD to hand just in case.
And finally, this is at your own risk. Backup everything first, because knowing your luck, if it could go wrong, it absolutely 100% will go wrong.
Getting the messy big bit out of the way –>
Zack Whittaker, the youngest in the ZDNet network, is a British student at the University of Kent, Canterbury, where he studies BA (Hons) Criminology and Social Policy. His insight into the next-generation is unique and first-hand, sharing his knowledge of the here and now but more so what's next and how to get there.
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| 01/04/09
